Improvement in buffers for railroad-cars



R. D. CH ATTERTON.

Car Bumper.

No. 41,483. Patented Feb. 9, 1864.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RICHARD D. CHATTERTON, QF BATH, ENGLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN BUFFERS FOR RAILROAD-CARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 41,483, dated February9, 1864.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, RICHARD D. CHATTER- TON,of Bath, in the county of Somerset and Kingdom of Great Britain andIreland, now temporarily residing in Cobourg, in the Prov ince ofCanada, have invented a new and Improved Bulfer for Railroad-Oars and Ido hereby declare that the followingisa full, clear, andexactdescription of the same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, making a part of this specification, in which.

Figure l is a transverse verticalsection of a railroad-car with myimprovement applied to it, mm, Fig. 2, indicating the line ofsection;Fig. 2, a horizontal section of the same, taken in the line y y, Fig. 1;Fig. 3, a detached transverse section of the couplingbar pertaining tothe same. i

. when the coupling-bar is forced in,by collision or otherwise, thewedges of the coupling'bar will act against the springs through themedium of the levers, the fulcra of the latter being so placed astoincrease the resistance or power of the springs and render the lattervery effective in resisting concussions-so much so that in case of twotrains of cars coming in cont-act under ordinary speed the momentum willbe completely absorbed by theresist-ance of the springs, and the carsprevented from being thrown from the track, eit'her'by the force ofimpact or by recoil;

The invention further consists in using, in connection with the leversaforesaid, supplemental levers, arrangedwith springs in such a manner asto form a draw-buffer in case of rocoil and. still admit of thecoupling-bar being readily drawn out when required to be adjusted'fo'ruse.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct myinvention, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents the bed or bottom of a railroadcar, between which bed andthe flooring of the car a space, 13, is allowed to receive the leversand springs pertaining to my invent-ion.

At the center of the car-bed A there is made a dovetail groove, O, whichextends the whole length-of the bed, and receives the lower dovetailpart, a, of a, coupling-bar, I), the part a of the coupling-bar being.allowed to slide freely in the groove 0. The upper part of thecoupling-bar, which is above the groove 0, is notched or' recessed atits sides to form a series oi continuous double-wedgeshaped projections,E, as shown in Fig. 2.

. On the bed A, at'each side ofthe groove 0, there are placed aseries oflevers, I the ,fulcra b of whiclrare so placed that 'the arms of thelevers nearest the groove 0 will. be much shorter than the arms at theopposite sides of the fulcra. The levers F are arranged paralelly ateach side of the groove 0, and in a transverse position with the bed A,and'betwcen the levers there are placed springs G, at ranged in such amanner as to bear against the long arms of the levers and tohave atendency to keep the ends of said arms in. contact with stops 0 at thesides of the bed A, and to keep the 'levc'rs F parallel with each otherat each sideof the groove 0, which is designed to be their normalposition.

Hrepresents a series of supplemental levers,

which are much shorter than the levers F, and

ency to keep the levers H in contact withpins or stops d, attached tothe long arms of the lever F, ata short distance from the fulcra b, asshownin the figures.

The springs I act upon the levers Hin a reverse direction to that inwhich the springs'G act upon the long arms of the levers F but thesprings I, in consequence of being much weaker than the springs G, andbearing against the levers H near the fulcra I), do not appreciablydetract from the power or efi'ect of the springs G. Y

The ends of the supplemental levers H which adjoin the edges of thegroove 0 project within the path of the movement of the wedge-shapedprojections E of the'co'uplingbar D.

The operation is as follows: The inner end of the coupling-bar l) isconnected to the car bya pin, d, which bears againsta loop or guide, 0,through which the coupling-bar passes, and in case of a collision itwill be seen that the coupling-bar wil? be driven inward,

and the projections E of he coupling-bar will actuate the supplementallevers H, and these, in consequence of their inner ends bearing againstthe pins or stops don the long'arms of the levers F, will actuatethelatter in pairs and. overcome the resistance of the springs G,

'as shown in blue in Fig. 2. As the couplingbar is forced or driven in,the several levers F at each side of the groove 0 will be successivelyacted upon by the-projections E, all the preceding levers being actuatedeach time a new pair is actuated; hence the coupling-bar v meets with agradually-increasing resistance until the momentum caused by thecollision is i completely absorbed.

The strength of the springs G is very materially augmented by theposition of the fnl cra b of the levers F, and this is an importantfeature, as it enables springs of moderate and practicabledimcnsionsbeing used.

In case of any recoil, it will be seen that the projections E will actupon thesupplemental leversH, as shown by the black dotted lines in Big.2, and the recoil will also be absorbed by the resistance of the springsI. It is on this account that the projections E are made of double-wedgeform.

.It is designed to have the first and last cars of a train providedwit'h'the springs, levers, and coupling-bar, as herein described, thatbein g deemed sufiicientto avoid all accidents ,i'ro'm collisions.

I would remark'that the coupling-bar D may,

when the train is in motion, be inserted fully into the groove 0, andhave a pin, d",'fitted in the front part of D, behind the loop or guide0. otherwise be between the cars, owing to the length .of the bar D,would be avoided, and when necessary the front pin d may be withdrawnand the bar D drawn out under the draft movement of the engine until theback pin d catches against the'loop or guide e.

I would further remark that I do not confinemyself to any precise numberor arrangement of springs and levers, for various modifications of thesame may be devised and all answer the same end.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

n. n. 'OHATTERTON.

Witnesses; 7

Tuos. L. J. DOUGLAs. D. ROBERTSON.

In this case the space which would

